From award-winning actor to model, Colm Meaney’s latest role will see him pose as Oscar Wilde.

The 61-year-old will portray the famous Irish writer this weekend as a sitter for the 2014 Sky Portrait Artist of the Year.

Colm, who is primarily based in the US, has flown in for the annual TV contest and will position himself as the poet for four hours while dozens of amateur artists draw and paint him in the Great Hall of The Irish Museum of Modern Art.

The Dubliner is currently in the middle of filming the fourth season of AMC’s Hell on Wheels in Calgary and has taken time out of his production schedule to participate in the event.

Although he’s been living abroad for 30 years, Colm returns to Ireland five times a year and insisted that his favourite thing to do is head to Drumcondra pub Fagans for a pint while in town, so no doubt he’ll be hoping to swing by his old local after sitting still all afternoon on Sunday.

Former Voice of Ireland coach Sharon Corr and Divine Comedy frontman Neil Hannon will join him as sitters and they will each take over three specially erected sets for the Irish heat of the recorded Sky Arts competition as the action gets underway.

“Colm will be emulating Oscar Wilde, an interesting pose, and while Sharon’s pose will not be quite as revealing as Pauline’s, she’s going to look very beautiful,” a spokesperson told Independent.ie.

Last year, Father Ted star Pauline McLynn daringly posed nude for her stint in the hot seat, while Moone Boy’s David Rawle read a book wearing the famous hat he sports in Chris O’Dowd’s comedy.

Tomorrow, artists will be competing to make the final of the popular show, which is to be broadcast on Sky Arts in October.

They will be up against the winners from the English, Scottish and Welsh heats in a bid to become Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year and the champion will see their work exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery in London for a month, as well as awarded a €12,000 commission for the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.

The series presenters Frank Skinner and Joan Bakewell will also be at the IMMA on Sunday monitoring the entrants’ progress and will announce the Irish winner at the end of the day